Adam Zertal (; 1936 – October 18, 2015) was an Israeli

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and a tenured professor at the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...

Biography

Adam Zertal grew up in Ein Shemer, a kibbutz affiliated with the

Hashomer Hatzair Hashomer Hatzair (, , 'The Young Guard') is a Labor Zionism, Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary. It was also the name of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party, the ...

movement. Zertal was severely wounded in the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...

. He later told a reporter for ''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English language, English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate of Mandatory Palestine, Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''Th ...

'', “I spent a year at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, and I became interested in archaeology. Although I had argued that the Bible was full of myths, I decided after my recovery to travel the land by foot to look for archeological evidence.” He completed his doctoral dissertation on ''The Israelite settlement in the Hill-Country of Manasseh'' under the supervision of

Nadav Na'aman Nadav Na'aman (Hebrew language, Hebrew: נדב נעמן; born in 1939 in Jerusalem) is an Israeli archaeologist and historian. He specializes in the study of the Near East in the second and first millenniums Current Era , BCE. His research combin ...

and

Moshe Kochavi __NOTOC__ Moshe Kochavi (; 1928–2008) was an Israeli archaeologist and a founding faculty member of Tel Aviv University's Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies. Biography Born in Buchar ...

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

in 1986.

Archaeology career

Zertal claimed to have identified several sites he worked on as being connected to sites, events and characters from the narratives in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Joshua's altar. A structure on

Mount Ebal Mount Ebal (; ) is one of the two mountains near the city of Nablus in the West Bank (Bible, biblical ''Shechem''), and forms the northern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated, the southern side being formed by Mount Gerizim. The mount ...

identified as an early Israelite altar. * Sisera's town. Zertal headed the excavations at El-ahwat, which he has identified as the Biblical

Harosheth Haggoyim Harosheth Haggoyim (, lit. ''Smithy of the Nations'') is a fortress described in the Book of Judges as the fortress or cavalry base of Sisera, commander of the army of "Jabin, King of Canaan". Sisera is described as having had nine hundred iron c ...

, a fortress described in the Book of Judges as the fortress or cavalry base of

Sisera Sisera ( ''Sīsərāʾ'') was commander of the Canaanite army of King Jabin of Hazor, who is mentioned in of the Hebrew Bible. After being defeated by the forces of the Israelite tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali under the command of Barak and ...

, commander of the army of King

Jabin Jabin ( ''Yāḇīn'') is a Biblical name meaning 'discerner', or 'the wise'. It may refer to: * A king of Tel Hazor, Hazor at the time of the entrance of Israel into CanaanJoshua 11:1, whose overthrow and that of the northern chiefs with whom he ...

. (

Judges 4 Judges 4 is the fourth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel,Gilad, ElonWho Really Wrote the Biblical Books of Kings and the Prophets? ' ...

) * Foot-shaped enclosures in the Jordan Valley and the hill country west of it. Zertal described them as ceremonial sites used during Iron Age I and probably later, as well.Rachel Feldman aifa University official blog): ''Enormous 'Foot-Shaped' Enclosure Discovered in Jordan Valley'

He explained the term "aliya la-regel" (lit.: "rise to the foot"), commonly translated as "pilgrimage", as derived from these enclosures, and saw the use of the expression in connection with the mandatory pilgrimage Temple in Jerusalem as an adaptation of the term to a new situation. He saw a direct connection between the foot shape of the enclosures and the biblical concept of taking ownership over a territory by walking on it, or in other words setting one's foot on it, as seen for instance in and , or of more generally "stepping in someone's shoes" and inheriting their property as in . Zertal discovered five such sites: Bedhat esh-Sha'ab (near Moshav Argaman), Masua (4) (near Masua), Yafit (3) (near Yafit), el-'Unuq, and the inner and outer enclosures at

. No access to relevant passage. Fully accessed in December 2015 on A. Zertal's homepage
p. 10, note 6
. * Underground quarry (possibly identified as biblical Galgala). In 2009, Zertal headed a team that discovered an ancient underground quarry in the Jordan Valley. He associated the cave with two Byzantine-period place names, Galgala and Dodekaliton (Greek for "Twelve Stones"), marked on the

Madaba map The Madaba Map, also known as the Madaba Mosaic Map, is part of a floor mosaic in the early Byzantine church of Saint George in Madaba, Jordan. The mosaic map depicts an area from Lebanon in the north to the Nile Delta in the south, and fro ...

next to each other and at a distance from Jericho that matches the cave's distance from the city. He offered the interpretation that the Byzantines had identified the site as

Gilgal Gilgal ( ''Gilgāl''), also known as Galgala or Galgalatokai of the 12 Stones ( or , ''Dōdekalithōn''), is the name of one or more places in the Hebrew Bible. Gilgal is mentioned 39 times, in particular in the Book of Joshua, as the place wher ...

, where the

Children of Israel Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanite populations and other peoples.Mark Smit ...

had set up the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan River while crossing it ().Cave Dating From The Year 1 A.D. Exposed In Jordan Valley
Science Daily, (July 7, 2009). Zertal's work was not without controversy, and, in particular, his claims about Mount Ebal, where he worked for nine years, never gained traction within the wider archaeological community. While many archeologists agree that the structure was a site of an early

Israelite Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

cultic activity, its identification with Joshua's altar is disputed.

Selected publications

* * * * * * * *

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zertal, Adam 1936 births 2015 deaths 20th-century Israeli archaeologists 21st-century Israeli archaeologists Biblical archaeologists Academic staff of the University of Haifa Mount Ebal